Yamanoi M., Maia J.M.
University of Minho, PT
Keywords: carbon nanofiber, composites, properties, shear flow
For functional applications of carbon nanotube and carbon nanofibre as composites, technologies of how to control orientation, dispersion and distribution are important would be a break-through if they were developed. So far, most of the work done in these systems have modeled the fibers as rigid rods. If this is acceptable when fibre length is smaller than the persistent length, it is not so in real cases. Thus, it is necessary to treat nano-fibers as flexible or semi-flexible and also to introduce van der Waals (VDW) interactions. In order to achieve this, we have developed a simulator based on the Particle Simulation Method that allows aggregated structures under flow fields to be analyzed. Usually fiber simulation does not consider both near-field and far-field hydrodynamic interaction, because of the associated calculation times. With our code, however, it is possible to simulate the effects of both near-field and far-field hydrodynamic interactions with relatively short computational times. This presentation discusses the effects of hydrodynamic interaction when van der Waals interaction is strong enough to yield aggregated structures. The results show that the code is very powerful and is able to capture quantitatively the kinetics of the flow and semi-quantitatively its dynamics.
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 3, Nanotechnology 2008: Microsystems, Photonics, Sensors, Fluidics, Modeling, and Simulation – Technical Proceedings of the 2008 NSTI Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show, Volume 3
Published: June 1, 2008
Pages: 681 - 684
Industry sector: Advanced Materials & Manufacturing
Topic: Informatics, Modeling & Simulation
ISBN: 978-1-4200-8505-1